San Jose Museum of Art presents "Plastic Life," an experiment in new media from the Pacific Rim, Mar. 13-Sept. 19

The San Jose Museum of Art will kick off its new exhibition series, “New Stories from the Edge of Asia,” with the exhibition Plastic Life, a showcase of new works in film, video, animation, and other dynamic media by artists from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the U.S. All the artists use traditional cultural imagery and techniques in weaving a compelling story.

In Charlene Shih’s Women (1999), traditional Chinese characters morph into a modern young woman on a journey of self-discovery. Shih, who lives in Taipei and Los Angeles, uses thousands of individual watercolor drawings on rice paper and stop-motion animation in the five-minute film.

Also included in the exhibition are the videos Nocturnal No. 4 (2008-09) by Taiwanese artist Chiang Chung-lun, and Bad (2005), by Su, Hui-Yu, also of Taiwan (made in collaboration with Huang Yi-ru and Wang Jia-ming).

In launching the exhibition series “New Stories from the Edge of Asia” the museum hopes to present works by artists living in Pacific Rim countries - a leading site of experimentation in new media. In addition to this cultural focus, the series addresses the technological interests and workforce of Silicon Valley, as well as its general audiences.

The exhibition is sponsored by an award from the MetLife Foundation’s Museum and Community Connections programs. Additional support for preliminary curatorial travel for Plastic Life was received from the Mentor Graphics Foundation and a travel grant from the Taipei Cultural Center of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, New York and Taipei.

The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San Jose, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, and free to members and children under 6. For more information, call 408-294-2787 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.